Why Marquez’s biggest danger to a third Moto GP title is himself

With 1/2 favourites to claim the biggest titles on both two and four wheels, one season yet to begin and the other just one race in, you could be left wondering what was the point in the others turning up with both as Lewis Hamilton and Marc Marquez look nigh on invincible.

But while the former has already started with a flourish, the current Moto GP champ has yet to have his credentials fully tested in 2015.

Ahead of the maiden event of the season Marquez (1/2) looks in a prime position to claim a third straight championship.

He will have to go some to match his wondrous start last season, winning the opening 10 races, leaving his tally at 19 wins from the last 38 GPs.

Warming up by setting a new lap record during the first test day of 2015 at Sepang will have done nothing to bolster the confidence of the chasing pack.

And with the 22-year-old on the verge of becoming one of the all-time greats, just who out there can stop him?

Frankly it looks like the only person preventing the Spaniard from claiming another title is himself.

Famed for his all-or-nothing riding style, Marquez is no stranger to encountering a faceful of tarmac or gravel.

His will to succeed is even apparent from his training runs when a broken leg put paid to much of his preparation for last season.

But on the track he is equally susceptible to taking a spin.

After his 10 victories at the start of the previous campaign, Marquez won just one of the next six races.

Of the five he failed to triumph in, three were results of crashes, coming off at Misano, Aragon and Phillip Island.

If you took the scores from the final eight GPs of the season, the champion would actually be left labouring in third place, 26 points behind Valentino Rossi, with 2012 title winner Jorge Lorenzo a further 12 points ahead.

Now it would be foolish to suggest that those results represent the whole season, but they do represent a moot point.

The Honda rider has been lucky to avoid injuries that would perhaps have keep him out of races last year, but with his aggressive riding style not letting up, he may not be so lucky this campaign.

His team-mate Dani Pedrosa (9/1), a rider Marquez rates as his biggest danger, as well as the aforementioned Lorenzo (3/1) and old master Rossi (6/1) are more than capable of picking up the pieces in the sports’ number one’s absence.

But for now, the man from Lleida continues to rule supreme as the Championship rolls into Doha.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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